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Obviously, politics is not a career choice for anyone too sensitive, too easily hurt, or too likely to take the negative opinions of others to heart. On the other hand, a woman choosing a public service life should not be subject to criticism or attack merely because of her gender. Sandra Jensen entered politics in 2012 when she was elected MLA for Calgary North West in the Redford government. She was named Minister of Family and Community Safety. The rest of her Conservative career is readily available on Wikipedia. Before politics, Ms. Jensen worked as a broadcaster. I mention these accomplishments to show that she has been in a couple of rough and tumble professions and if she couldn't handle the heat, she'd have already left the kitchen. It wasn't until she decided to run for leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta that she ran into the kind of hate-filled misogyny and crude comments that she gave up on something. After a recent Conservative party convention, she withdrew from the leadership race citing sexism and personal attacks as her reasons. Her nomination forms were opportunities for gender-specific insults and personal attack graffiti. She felt threatened and demeaned. I can't ignore the fact that a large portion of her problem comes from the fact that she is a woman. That leaves her open to extremely demeaning, degrading language and she isn't the first.Rachel Notley and her female ministers, in particular, have been targets of similar comments and even threats. Their social media is flooded with this kind of insulting material whenever they make decisions, unpopular with some people. In a democracy, this shouldn't be the kind of treatment awaiting our public servants.Farther south, Hillary Clinton, faced similar discriminatory kinds of attacks. Attacking her policies, or her record as Secretary of State or even the issue of her non-existent emails (in the latest investigation, just before the election) is fair enough. A male would have to stand or fall by his record. What isn't acceptable it that her gender opened her to other kinds of attack.People, it's 2016. That's frightening.